Working families and out-of-work ­graduates are joining the homeless in food queues as the spiralling cost of living outstrips flatlining wages

Emergency food banks are opening at a rate of one every four days as thousands of families say they are so poor they will starve without help.

There has been a surge in food crisis centres across the country and Britain’s biggest operator has more than doubled in size in just over a year.

The Trussell Trust’s food bank network has grown from 79 centres to 176 since 2010, and demand is growing. The ­charity expects to help 100,000 people who cannot afford to feed themselves this year, up 50 per cent on the last 12 months.

The pattern is repeated across the country as the spiralling cost of living outstrips flatlining wages... meaning working families and out-of-work ­graduates are joining the homeless in food queues.

Campaigners believe the problem will only get worse when more tough Tory welfare reforms take hold from April, with 500,000 expected to be in need of food by 2015.

The Sunday Mirror found volunteers at centres up and down the country ­struggling to meet demand for food ­parcels, usually from desperate people who never imagined they would fall into the poverty trap.

For charity worker Sarah ­Graham, a hefty plumbing bill after a freak flood at home was enough to plunge her into a financial crisis. At a food bank in Durham, she said: “I had no savings and there was nobody I could ask for help.

“I ended up too poor to eat... I’d have been on the streets ­begging if it hadn’t been for a handout of ­groceries. If it can happen to me it can happen to anyone. So many people are just one pay cheque away from financial ­disaster.”

Electrician Jody Hodgson has been out of work for only three months, yet found himself unable to provide food for partner Donna Martin and her three children.

They got help from the Trussell Trust’s Salisbury branch, which fed 4,000 people in the affluent city and ­surrounding area last year alone. The Wiltshire centre is thought to have 14 tonnes of tinned food stocks, with further supplies at the 176 nationwide food banks.

People in need are usually referred by social services, Citizens Advice branches or ­Jobcentres. Families are entitled to nine vouchers – each providing three days of food – per year. Trussell boss Chris Mould said: “People are faced with ­impossible choices between paying the rent and buying food. Parents skip meals or consider crime to feed their children.

“The shocking truth is that thousands are going hungry in their own homes in 21st Century Britain.”

Hundreds of large charities and small community and religious groups are helping families in the same way.

Debbie Clegg, who runs the Dovedale Pride food bank in Preston, said: “We were always busy but now it is far worse... and it is just going to get worse.

“Some of the people we help are on benefits but we are helping more and more married couples and parents.

“Things are so expensive that if for example a school uniform gets damaged and needs replacing there often isn’t enough money left for food... some ­people we see haven’t eaten for weeks.”

The Salvation Army handed out 35,000 food parcels in December and January.

Major Sheila Dunkinson of the York branch said: “Most of the families were facing difficulties related to ill-health, unemployment, or social problems and some were at risk of homelessness.”

Labour said George Osborne’s ­austerity programme and policies like the VAT hike have made it difficult for families to make ends meet. Shadow economic secretary Cathy Jamieson said: “This out-of-touch Government is making things worse, not better, for the squeezed middle.”